The Trumpology series of columns are also published on Capitol Hill Blue where I am a columnist, and are informed by my 40 years of experience as a clinical social worker and psychotherapist. I worked in Michigan as Mason Mental Health Center director and Middleboro, Massachusetts in private practice. Opinions on Trump come from my understanding of psychiatric diagnosis, psychology, and psychopathology. I consider Trump to be a sadistic impulsive malignant narcissist.

Polls described in this article don’t even reflect the repulsive misogynistic remarks and Tweets from Trump from this week. Basically, the article describes how Trump is losing support among white women.

In addition to describing the polls, Scott writes:

Recent scandals involving the relationship between Team Trump and women have dominated headlines and have probably influenced female voters’ perception of the White House’s views on women.

In January, reports claimed that an adult film actress who allegedly had an affair with Trump shortly after his wife gave birth received a six-figure payment to remain silent. Trump denied the allegations.

And in December, Trump endorsed Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, who was accused of sexually assaulting teenage girls while he was in his 30s.

Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel delivered senior White House staff a memo at the end of 2017 showing how poorly the GOP was doing with women. If Trump and his supporters do not make significant changes, GOP lawmakers who support Trump’s agenda may endure the wrath of American women who are fed up with the president.

If there’s such a thing as a "perfect" example of KARMA it will be if the GOP loses the House and Senate because of former female Trump supporters voting Democratic. Trump won't even make it to run for a second term.

KARMA: (in Hinduism and Buddhism) this is, of course, the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence, which is viewed as deciding their fate in future existences. With Trump, not in the afterlife, although if there is one we can speculate as to where he’ll be spending eternity, but in the disgraced ex-president afterlife.⍖⍖⍖⍖⍖⍖⍖

Excerpt from the story on the right →→→

Isaac Chotiner: If someone said to you, “Matt, I haven’t read your story. You have 15 seconds.What should I take away from it?” It’s such a crazy story that I want to know what you’d say.

Matthew Rosenberg: It’s a really weird one, and it’s a hard one to do in 15 seconds. But let me see if I can try. The topline is that American spies went out looking for these hacking tools that the NSA had created that had been stolen. And they found a Russian who said he could sell it all, but said, “You are also going to get all the kompromat on Donald Trump. The sex tape. All of it.” The Americans were like, “Oh, God, we don’t really want that, we want those hacking tools,” so they kept negotiating.

It’s basically a story about what a weird, kind of strange, difficult time this is. Spy games happen all the time, but you need a confluence of circumstances [for this]: You need an election with Russian interference. You then need a president to win and deny interference ever happened and say there is no collusion. You need the Russians to say, “Oh, wow, let’s take advantage of this. This really worked out. Let’s make it worse and start selling this stuff off.” And you need that dossier to exist, and get the idea in the public imagination that this stuff is out there. And you need all these things to come together to get this truly bizarre thing where American spies, who aren’t supposed to spy on American citizens—full stop—are suddenly confronted with [the idea of], “Wait, a possible foreign agent wants to sell us a sex tape of the president?” That’s not something they usually do.

Just saying:

A physician friend of mine asks "I could see his children and Jared-but why do others remain around Trump? They are now stained for life (not talking about voters)" my answer in captions below:

Another friend was reminded of this joke, which does actually answer the question as to why some people keep working for Trump.Two friends run into one another after a long time of no contact. One asks his friend what he’s doing now and he replies that he’s working at the circus, cleaning up elephant shit. My God, that’s a terrible job, his friend responded, aghast. Why don’t you just quit that job, he asked. His friend, stunned, retorted “What?? And give up show business?!?

Feb. 9, 2018Evening, Just Announced:

Add caption

Leading mental health experts have continued to express serious concerns over the issue of presidential mental fitness and the lack of standards for routinely testing presidential mental health. Donald Trump’s physician, Dr. Ronny Jackson, administered only a basic screening for advanced dementia during the President’s physical. The President has bragged about his perfect score on the exam, which includes telling a lion from a camel and drawing a clock.

On Monday, February 12 at 7:00 PM, Tom Steyer will be joined by Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD), four leading mental health professionals, and a nuclear weapons expert to discuss presidential mental health, nuclear weapons safeguards, and new protocols that can limit the consequences of impulsive decisions made by the Executive Branch.

To attend the National Press Club event, reservations are required. Space is limited and access will be assigned as space allows. Guests will need an electronic barcode to gain entrance to the event. Please register here https://action.needtoimpeach.com/rsvp-wash as soon as possible to reserve your seat before the event fills up. Continued

Participants:

Tom Steyer

Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-MD)

Steven Buser, M.D., Psychiatrist

John D. Gartner, Ph.D, Clinical Psychologist

David M. Reiss, M.D., Psychiatrist

Jacqueline J. West, Ph.D, Jungian Analsyst

James E. Doyle, Ph.D, Specialist in the Nuclear Nonproliferation

20 comments so far:

Published before he went public yesterday (Feb. 8).Enquiring minds should be asking whether Sarah has finally had too much? There is a reason
she didn't face the press to field questions about Porter and his own boss, Kelly.

I find this interesting not only because of the light it sheds on the Steele dossier, but also and significantly to me, because of how someone Nunes is targeting in his secret investigation has decided to preempt any confidential testimony by publishing his side of the story in advance. It is in today’s Washington Post.

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By the end of the day, if Fox News picks this up, Jonathan M. Winer may end up being attacked in a Trump Tweet.

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Like with the infamous erroneous Nunes memo, the truth when it comes out will end up biting Trump and his minions in their collective asses. Of course, we live in a world where the truth doesn’t matter to a pathetically brainwashed 30% of the population, and to the cowardly members of the GOP in Congress.

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Here’ s what you should know about Jonathan Winer’s background before you see him interviewed on the non-Fox media.

Jonathan M. Winer has been the United States Special Envoy for Libya, the deputy assistant secretary of state for international law enforcement, and counsel to United States Senator John Kerry. He has written and lectured widely on U.S. Middle East policy, counter-terrorism, international money laundering, illicit networks, corruption, and U.S.-Russia issues.

In 2016, Winer received the highest award granted by the Secretary of State, for “extraordinary service to the U.S. government” in avoiding the massacre of over 3,000 members of an Iranian dissident group in Iraq, and for leading U.S. policy in Libya “from a major foreign policy embarrassment to a fragile but democratic, internationally recognized government.” In 1999, he received the Department’s second highest award, for having “created the capacity of the Department and the U.S. government to deal with international crime and criminal justice as important foreign policy functions." The award stated that "the scope and significance of his achievements are virtually unprecedented for any single official." From The Middle East Institue

From Jonathan M. Winer in The Washington Post:

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) announced last week that the next phase of his investigation of the events that led to the appointment of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III will focus on the State Department. His apparent area of interest is my relationship with former British intelligence professional Christopher Steele and my role in material that Steele ultimately shared with the FBI.

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In 1999 Winer left the State Department and developed a legal and consulting practice that often involved Russian matters. In the course of that work, he met Christoper Steele in 2009 and they became friends.

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In the summer of 2016, Steele told Winer "that he had learned of disturbing information regarding possible ties between Donald Trump, his campaign and senior Russian officials. He did not provide details but made clear the information involved “active measures,” a Soviet intelligence term for propaganda and related activities to influence events in other countries."

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Then in, September 2016, he met with Steele in Washington and discussed the information in the so-called dossier which "suggested that the Kremlin not only had been behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign but also had compromised Trump and developed ties with his associates and campaign." He reviewed but was not allowed to keep a copy of the report, prepared a two-page summary, and shared it with the State Department through Victoria Nuland, a career diplomat he knew who was then assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. She felt that the information needed to be shared with Secretary of State Kerry.

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There’s more (my emphasis added)

In late September, I spoke with an old friend, Sidney Blumenthal, whom I met 30 years ago when I was investigating the Iran-contra affair for then-Sen. Kerry and Blumenthal was a reporter at The Post. At the time, Russian hacking was at the front and center in the 2016 presidential campaign. The emails of Blumenthal, who had a long association with Bill and Hillary Clinton, had been hacked in 2013 through a Russian server.

While talking about that hacking, Blumenthal and I discussed Steele’s reports. He showed me notes gathered by a journalist I did not know, Cody Shearer, that alleged the Russians had compromising information on Trump of a sexual and financial nature.

What struck me was how some of the material echoed Steele’s but appeared to involve different sources.

On my own, I shared a copy of these notes with Steele, to ask for his professional reaction. He told me it was potentially “collateral” information. I asked him what that meant. He said that it was similar but separate from the information he had gathered from his sources. I agreed to let him keep a copy of the Shearer notes.

Is there a point when Nunes will realize that the more he learns about Christopher Steele, a modern day 007, and the incriminating information in the dossier about Trump and his campaign, he will realize that he is aiding and abetting someone who was not only un-American, but who committed treason?

Feb. 8, 2018Evening:Why did someone - presumably Kelly - decide to send out someone even less ready for prime time than Sarah Sanders out to face the press today? Could it be that Sarah suddenly developed a case of conscience? Doubtful, but ya-neva-know!

First, about the choice of photos I made and the NY Times made to illustrate a story. My hunch is that the NYT chose the photo because of the allegations that, among the many indictable charges that it appears Mueller could level against him, lurks the legal but blackmailable Russian sexual activity he engaged in has to do with women when he was in Moscow. I chose it because it got me to thinking about the following:

We don’t know what happened in the Moscow hotel room. We do know what happened on the Access Hollywood bus:

TRUMP: "I moved on her. Actually, she was down on Palm Beach. I moved on her and I failed. I'll admit it. I did try and fuck her. She was married."BUSH: "That's huge news."TRUMP: "Nancy [O'Dell - former co-host of Access Hollywood], no this was... and I moved on her. Very heavily. In fact, I took her out furniture shopping. She wanted to get some furniture. I said 'I'll show you where they have some nice furniture'. I took her... I moved on her like a bitch. I couldn't get there and she was married. And all of a sudden I see her. She's now got the big phoney tits and she's totally changed her look."BUSH: "Sheesh, your girl's hot as shit. In the purple."TRUMP: "Whoa! Yes! Whoa!"BUSH: "Yes! The Donald has scored. Whoa, my man!"[cross talk]BUSH: " It better not be the publicist. No it's her, it's..."TRUMP: "Yeah that's her in the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs [breath fresheners] just in case I start kissing her. You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful... I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. And when you're a star they let you do it. You can do anything."BUSH: "Whatever you want."TRUMP: "Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything." Transcript of entire tape

We also know what some of the contestants said about Trump barging into their dressing room and what Trump told Hoard Stern about it.

Co-host Robin Quivers then asked Trump if sleeping with the contestants could be construed as a conflict of interest.

"It could be a conflict of interest," Trump said. "But, you know, it's the kind of thing you worry about later, you tend to think about the conflict a little bit later on."

Stern then put on a fake foreign accent, saying that "some of these foreign girls" say hello "with vagina."

"Well, what you could also say is that, as the owner of the pageant, it's your obligation to do that," Trump said, before discussing how he got away with going backstage when the contestants were naked.

"Well, I'll tell you the funniest is that before a show, I'll go backstage and everyone's getting dressed, and everything else, and you know, no men are anywhere, and I'm allowed to go in because I'm the owner of the pageant and therefore I'm inspecting it," Trump said. "You know, I'm inspecting because I want to make sure that everything is good."

"You know, the dresses. 'Is everyone okay?' You know, they're standing there with no clothes. 'Is everybody okay?' And you see these incredible looking women, and so, I sort of get away with things like that. But no, I've been very good," he added.

Later in the episode, Stern asks Trump to assure his audience that "the chicks will be almost naked" at his pageant, saying to Trump that before he bought the contest, "they were starting to take women who were educated over women who were hot." This is an excerpt from a long and disturbing article from CNN Donald Trump to Howard Stern: It's okay to call my daughter a 'piece of ass' which also includes Stern show videos.

The article tells us what we already know, i.e., that Trump is an empowered misogynist pig who gets a particular thrill about making women uncomfortably squirm under his lascivious gaze. This is a sadistic sexual pleasure. I just skimmed the article not even wanting to pick out an excerpt to tarnish the “pages” of Daily Kos. However, I did find the published Trump campaign response which is interesting in that it presages the excuse they have persisted in using quite successfully with their base.

Update, October 13th, 2016 10:30 a.m. ET: The Trump campaign issued a statement to Rolling Stone categorically denying these allegations and questioning the political motivation behind reporting on them, adding, "Mr. Trump has a fantastic record of empowering women throughout his career, and a more accurate story would be to show how he's been a positive influence in the lives of so many."

Trump has been credibly accused more than a dozen women. I think the number is up to 19 by now, and I’m not sure if this includes his first wife. None of these assaults are federal crimes, although as we know from yesterdays furor over Rob Porter and domestic abuse, accusations of behavior that are state crimes can lead to the FBI withholding a security clearance recommendation. This brings up something I haven’ t heard so far: Trump couldn’t get a top secret clearance just based on the allegations and admissions of his sexual crimes.

As enumerated in the Kristoff essay, there’s we didn’t know about. Taken alone or even a few lumped together with the things we know about Trump, his campaign, and Russia, you could say ho-hum, shrug it off, or say have some more borscht, Boris.

A whisper of smoke, but not even glowing embers let alone fire.

However, seen together one has to think in terms of a five-alarm fire.

Below is the list, each item explained in his opinion piece in today's New York Times. Actually, the first 11 are things we know. I suppose number 12 is a matter of perspective. I mean, in this Era (or Error) of Trump, who the Hell can say what is "normal?"

Excerpted:

President Trump and Devin Nunes have been muddying the waters of the Russia investigation, so let’s try to clarify those waters so that they’re as clear as vodka.

Here are a dozen things we know.

1. Russia interfered in the U.S. election.

2. Trump has longstanding business interests in Russia.

3. Trump has consistently displayed a soft spot for Putin.

4. Trump picked people with ties to Russia.

5. Russia confided in the Trump campaign.

6. Trump aides secretly met with Russians.

7. A Trump ally secretly communicated with a Russian mouthpiece.

8. … more secret contacts.

9. Kushner met a Putin ally.

10. Trump aides falsely denied contacts.

11. Russia is still at it.

12. This is not normal!

Actually, I doubt that there was anything so straightforward as a secret quid pro quo. Indeed, some of these links are so blatant that they seem confusingly exculpatory: Why would anybody conspiring with Putin raise suspicions by publicly praising him?

Yet the Russian interference itself is beyond doubt. The Mueller investigation has led to two guilty pleas and two indictments so far, and it must continue. Frankly, it’s suspicious that Trump is throwing up so much dust and trying so hard to delegitimize the investigation.

He is not acting innocent.☐

Trump is guilty of federal crimes and most assuredly state white collar crimes.

He is also guilty of state crimes against sexual assault, although he’ s never been charged and convicted. The credible allegations and the evidence of his own words would be enough for the FBI.

He wouldn’t be able to get a clearance to be the custodian in the West Wing.

Feb. 7, 2018Afternoon:

My Daily Kos story today:

When it suits him Trump is happy to somehow bask in the glow of the well-deserved glory of an amazing entrepreneur. I was wondering if Trump could manage to avoid Tweeting congrats to Musk out of ire over his well-publicized departure in June from two of his business councils.

It was a moment of rather mannerly camaraderie between the two — Musk and Trump have a rather complicated relationship. Before the 2016 election, the SpaceX founder told CNBC, "[Trump] doesn't seem to have the sort of character that reflects well on the United States."

Nonetheless, Musk was one of the many tech titans to attend a summitTrump held in Dec. 2016, alongside Apple’s Tim Cook, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, among others.

Musk served on the president's business advisory councils, but in June 2017 announced he was quitting after Trump pulled the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement.

Who knows whether Trump’s selective memory has erased his memories of stories like these:

The style is best described as a wraparound combover - watch video

Dana Milbank solves the Trump problem, proposes Americlappers in "Want Trump to be less crazy? Clap for him more" ---

"short of sending two-thirds of Americans to the electric chair. I propose a national service program based on applause. We’ll call it AmeriClaps. Millions of AmeriClaps volunteers will applaud Trump daily. In exchange, Trump will agree to cease governing, leaving that to members of Congress, governors and a board of overseers selected by random digit dialing. The contribution categories he decribes with increasing participation are from the lowest, "Putin-Level Applauders will agree to clap for the president for 60 minutes a year, accompanied by mild praise of the sort given Trump by Russian President Vladimir Putin: 'He is a very bright person, talented without any doubt.' " through Congressional, Cabinet, Hatch, and ending with Pence Level

Only the most devoted AmeriClaps volunteer will be able to sustain this commitment: a pledge to applaud Trump an hour every day while also praising Trump once every 12.5 seconds, as Vice President Pence did at a recent Cabinet meeting. Examples include: “It is just the greatest privilege of my life”; “You’ve restored American credibility”; “You’ve unleashed American energy”; “You’ve spurred an optimism in this country that’s setting records;” “I’m deeply humbled.”

I personally can commit right now to Putin-Level service and would consider Congressional Level. Democratic leaders should consider a Hatch-Level or even a Cabinet-Level contribution; you have nothing to lose but the skin on your hands.
Perhaps a brave few AmeriClappers will even attempt Pence Level — though I suspect that, given the choice, most would take the electric chair.

He grabs pussies. He kisses females without concern for the revulsion and horror they feel for him. Does he ever experience rejection? He does not. “Most men would get discouraged,” he says, referring to those he comes on to. “Fortunately for her, I am not most men.”

He is Pepé Le Pew. Does he remind us of anyone else?

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Which leads us back to the president, who is kind of like Pepé Le Pew with neither French nor stench. This inspires me to ask you to join me in a game, which we’ll call Who Said It — Donald Trump or Pepé Le Pew?

“You know, I’m automatically attracted to beautiful.”

“She thinks that by running away she can make herself more attractive to me. How right she is!”

“I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet.”

“I am stupid, no?”

“I’m like, smart!”

Answers below, if you actually need them.

Answers: Trump; Le Pew; Trump; Le Pew; Trump.

I admit that I held my breath before clicking on the WaPo article below, hoping it wouldn't be a Democrat:

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) called on Republican state Sen. Jeff Kruse to resign after a report by an independent investigator found he repeatedly subjected women to uncomfortable hugging and unwanted touching — sometimes on the Senate floor or in the governor’s office — even after repeated warnings. He did some of these things even while cameras were rolling, the investigator found.

Feb. 6, 2017Evening

Afternoon:With the amazingly successful launch of SpaceX it's gratifying to say a "Fuck You Trump" since he can't take any credit for having Elon Musk on two of his business councils since he quit this summer over Trump's quiting the Paris climate accords. This is one of the greatest engineering feats of the 21st century. Not only did the launch go off flawlessly, but minutes later the two boosters came down and landed upright.MSNBC didn't put on the Sarah - Show (press briefing) because they deemed this history in the making.

Wilson also writes the following before get goes on to addressing just what casual presidential accusations of treason means to the country:

Monday's simpering, prissy, self-indulgent performance in Ohio was just another raree-show with our Kentucky Fried Nero fiddling while the stock market burned. Then came the moment where he broke another seal, and cracked another seam in the foundation of our Republic…. That was when Trump, in his typical sneering, sniggling, purse-lipped way said of the Democrats watching his State of the Union speech: “They were like death. And un-American. Un-American. Somebody said ‘treasonous.’ I mean, yeah, I guess, why not? Can we call that treason? Why not? I mean they certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much.”

Even for Trump, on an endless quest to define American decency down, this was a new low. His followers and Congressional cheering section will love it, of course. A few Republicans in Congress may furrow a brow or intone some anodyne statement like, "I wouldn't have put it that way, but..." ….. Trump lacks the mental capacity to see where this very slippery slope leads, but the political arsonists around him do. With that, prepare to reap the whirlwind. CONTINUED

And then there’s this from another writer of not too shabby rhetoric Heather “Digby” Parton —

“Axios also reportedMonday that Trump's lawyers have "approved the idea of appointing a second special counsel to investigate the FBI and Justice Department's actions during the 2016 presidential campaign." I'm not sure why their "approval" would be sought or required, but there you have it. As wacky as that is, it's nothing compared to this nugget reported by Howard Fineman at NBC: “

Trump is even talking to friends about the possibility of asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to consider prosecuting Mueller and his team. "Here's how it would work: 'We're sorry, Mr. Mueller, you won't be able to run the federal grand jury today because he has to go testify to another federal grand jury,'" said one Trump adviser.

“Basically, they are building a case that Hillary Clinton, along with top leadership of the Department of Justice, the FBI and the State Department, colluded with the Russian government -- and all of them, along with special counsel Mueller, should be locked up. That sounds extreme. But consider what the president said on Monday about Democratic members of Congress who didn't applaud him at the State of the Union address last week:”

They were like death and un-American. Un-American. Somebody said, "treasonous." I mean, yeah, I guess. Why not? Can we call that treason? Why not? I mean, they certainly didn't seem to love our country that much.

“With a leader like that, is it such a stretch to believe that his Attorney General might actually appoint special counsels to investigate the FBI and the State Department to ferret out the Democratic traitors? Would we really be that shocked to see them try to prosecute Hillary Clinton or Bob Mueller? I'm afraid it's getting easier to believe every day.”

EXCERPT: (EMPHASIS ADDED) —

“Dolt-like Trump,” the commentary went on, “should know that his backbone would be broken, to say nothing of a ‘bloody nose,’ and the empire of America would go to hell and the short history of the U.S. would end forever, the moment he destroys even a single blade of grass on this land.”

The U.S. and the world must “urgently detain Trump … in the isolated hospital of psychopaths,” it said.

The commentary also served up a personal insult of the U.S. president, who grappled with a number of reported scandals during his campaign and after his election.

“No matter how desperately Trump may try to defame the dignified and just system in the DPRK with the worst invectives, he cannot deodorize the nasty smell from his dirty body woven with frauds, sexual abuses and all other crimes nor keep the U.S. from rushing to the final destruction,” the commentary said.

What Kim says isn’t as important as the fact that his words are being read by those in Japan and other Asian countries where people must be growing uneasy with the continued demonstrations that Trump is unlike any American president they have ever seen. If they aren’t worried yet, they will be soon because there’s no sign Trump will change except for the worse as the pressure from the Mueller probe increases and it dawns on him that his presidency is in jeopardy.

Readers here on Daily Kos understand that Trump is unstable, whether we want to get into the weeds with making an actual psychiatric diagnosis or not. Psychiatric diagnosticians willing to go public say he’s a malignant narcissist. Others eschew diagnosis preferring to explain how his behavior demonstrates dangerous instability. His latest unfiltered accusation stated with smirking delight has to be taken seriously as yet one more proof as to how maliciously unhinged he is. He isn’t merely a narcissistic bullying braggart. At the risk of being repetitious:

Afternoon Update: It was a relief when MSNBC cut away from Trump's campaign style speech where he said Democrats who didn't clap a his State of the Union speech were treasonous, while he bragged about how much his tax cuts were helping the economy. Of course the reason MSNBC shifted away from Trump's braggadocio was because the stock market was plunging to a steep day loss of 4%. In his most recent Tweet Trump ignored this. Instead of a reassuring Tweet this is what he said:

I didn't watch the Superbowl. Instead I watched a NetFlix documentary about the Beatles. It made me think about how much we need them now. I did read that Justin Timberlake's halftime show was a disaster. You can bet that if the Beatles did the halftime show they would have sent a powerful message to Trump nation.

Missing from the anti-Trump movement are popular defining protest songs. Every movement needs its music. Every protest needs a soundtrack.

Why don’t we have this now?

You could say this is because there’s no draft, because young people aren’t at risk of dying in a war. However, they are at risk of being deported. They are all facing the the erosion to the point of no return of precocious civil rights.

We need a new era of accessible protest music.

For those of you you are too young to remember the impact they had on the anti-war movement in the early 1960’s I suggest you watch the Netflix documentary:

The Beatles were so much a part of the youth movement that blossomed in the 1960s that it's amusing to think that one of the main issues that energized the movement--peace--came to the Beatles through a 92-year-old man.

As Paul McCartney explains in this clip from a January 14, 2009 interview on The View, it happened when he decided to pay a visit to philosopher Bertrand Russell. A co-founder of analytic philosophy, Russell had been a life-long social and political activist. During World War I, he was not allowed to travel freely in Britain due to his anti-war views. He lost his fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was eventually jailed for six months for supposedly interfering with British Foreign Policy. After World War II, Russell lobbied strenuously for the abolition of nuclear weapons. In the 1960s, he opposed the Vietnam War.

After the Beatles became big in 1963 and 1964, McCartney began taking advantage of his celebrity status by calling on people he admired.

For those of us who were there and participated in anti-war protests we know how much music influenced us and made us feel empowered.

I know I am risking leaving out your favorite here, but here are some of the top songs:

War (What is It Good For?) (1969) – It was a #1 hit in 1970 and was later performed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band during their tour of 1985.

Eve of Destruction (1965) This song written by a 19-year-old P.F. Sloan, was made famous by Barry McGuire

I-Feel-Like-I’m-Fixing-to-Die-Rag (1967) – One of the most memorable moments of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair of 1969 was Country Joe MacDonald’s solo performance of this blatantly obvious anti-Vietnam War song with the chorus of “and it’s one, two, three what are we fighting for? Don’t ask me I don’t give a damn, next stop is Vietnam.”

The Unknown Soldier (1968) – This anti-war song was Jim Morrison and the Doors contribution to their opposition to the Vietnam War. LINK

There are so many others: Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, and Joan Baez famously pleading with Bob Dylan to start writing protest songs again, and today making a valiant effort with a new song about Trump.

Let me know your favorites from the Vietnam era, and songs I am missing that could become anthems for the anti-Trump movement.

Trump won't hear about this on Fox News Department: The Memo Doesn’t Vindicate You. It’s More Proof of Obstruction. NY Times Opinion: Excerpt

On the issue of bias, whenever the Justice Department seeks a warrant, they must present extensive evidence to a judge, who decides whether to issue the warrant based on that evidence. After the fact, defendants can challenge warrants by arguing that the government recklessly excluded information that would have caused the judge not to sign the warrant.

Courts have repeatedly held that even when the government omitted the criminal history of the informant or the fact that the informant was paid, it didn’t matter unless the omitted information would have caused the judge not to sign the warrant.

The Nunes memo claims to show that the warrant was obtained unlawfully, but there is no way of knowing that without examining the extensive evidence submitted in conjunction with the warrant, which the memo does not do. Given that Mr. Steele was a former intelligence officer, not a flipper with an extensive criminal history, it will be hard to show that a judge would have believed he was lying if the source of his funding was included in the application.

Given how little substance there is to the Nunes memo, the Republicans made a misstep by pushing through its release in a partisan manner. The specter of an unreleased memo was more menacing than the thin allegations revealed in the memo itself, which are hotly disputed by congressional Democrats.

Although at least one Republican maintains that the memo shows that Mr. Rosenstein, Mr. Comey and others committed “treason,” the memo itself does not allege that the F.B.I. or Department of Justice knowingly used false information or even that the information they used was false. Because the allegations in the memo are legally irrelevant, I would be surprised if the memo was more than a short-lived publicity stunt.

This is not the result Mr. Nunes expected when his staff wrote the memo, but that could be its lasting impact.

Excerpt: A couple of years ago, Neil deGrasse Tyson hosted a debate at the Hayden Planetarium in New York on the hypothesis that our universe might be a Matrix-like computer simulation designed by a superior civilization. (Conclusion: Unknowable, but not disprovable. Whether our awareness of this possibility was evidence against it — can characters in a video game become self-conscious? — also proved to be a circular conundrum.) The discussion was a lot of fun, although that particular thought experiment has always struck me as a way for physicists and cosmologists and so on to talk about God without invoking religion or getting stuck in questions about “turtles all the way down.”

Most scientists incline toward atheism because they have concluded that a divine creator — or an alien race of higher-order software engineers — is not necessary to understand the physical universe. But isn’t that exaggerated faith in the power of Reason an example of human hubris in its most refined form, one that is contradicted by recent history and lived experience? I am reminded here of Mormon historian Terryl Givens’ ingenious formulation: His church had never claimed that its outlandish theology was plausible, he argued, only that it was true. Which, as we see around us every day in the United States of America under President Donald Trump, is an entirely different matter.

Every weekday morning I get up and make coffee, scan the headlines and read whatever Salon columnist Heather Digby Parton (*) has dropped into my inbox overnight. It all begins in a state of ordinary grogginess that rapidly gives way, with the infusion of caffeine, the early-morning tweets from You Know Who (typically up well before I am) and the nuggets of alarming or hilarious news, to a mounting sense of unreality. At some point during the day, I inevitably see the president on television and suppress the desire to laugh out loud, reminding myself again that he is in fact the president, as ridiculous as that seems, and it’s definitely not a laughing matter. Maybe tonight I will remember to write it on my arm, like the guy in “Memento”: TRUMP/POTUS! NOT JK! Continued

*Digby is my favorite columnist. HB

About the article on the right, some of my thoughts: Questions about Trump's mental health are being asked around the world. A reporter from one of Russia's large TV stations emailed me a few weeks ago to ask for an interview. I didn't have time to consider the request since by the time I got the email the dealine had past. I since have learned that I was basically on the "D" list, since at least some of the well known mental health profoessionals had already declined this request.Since no Russian media is free from government control, it remains to be seen why they would want Russian citizens to know that there were questions being raised by American mental health experts about Trump's mental health.This being said, many publications are covering the story. For example, Al Bawaba which is a news, blogging and media website headquartered in Amman, Jordan with an office in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. They republished this story by Bandy Lee, MD, MDiv, the editor of "The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump." The website bills itself as the largest independent producer and distributor of content in theMiddle East, with a full-time staff of journalists.From The Netherlands: Minister Ollongren about AIVD revelation: already warned about external influencesMinister Ollongren of Home Affairs, responsible for intelligence service AIVD, does not want to discuss the disclosure that Dutch intelligence services watched for years while Russian hackers infiltrated the American government. However, she emphasizes that she has already pointed out the risk of 'state actors trying to influence democracies'.

Not only are foreigners worried about Trump's mental health, they are alarmed by his dismissive attitude towards Russian interference in elections. For example, a friend of mine who is from The Netherlands alerted me to following from a website she follows:Ook verwijst de minister naar jaarverslagen van de Algemene Inlichtingen en Veiligheidsdienst waarin eveneens wordt gewaarschuwd voor de risico's van cyberaanvallen en hacks door andere overheden. De Volkskrant en Nieuwsuur onthulden gisteren dat de Nederlandse inlichtingendiensten AIVD en MIVD (de militaire tak) in 2014 toegang kregen tot een Russisch computernetwerk in een universiteitsgebouw vlakbij het Kremlin. De Nederlanders konden meekijken hoe de Russische hackersgroep Cozy Bear aanvallen uitvoerde op het Amerikaanse ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken, toegang wist te krijgen tot mailverkeer van het Witte Huis en infiltreerde in de Democratische partij. Het verhaal bevestigt Amerikaanse vermoedens van Russische inmenging in de verkiezingsstrijd tussen Donald Trump en Hillary Clinton in 2016. Translation:The Minister also refers to annual reports from the General Intelligence and Security Service, which also warned about the risks of cyber attacks and hacks by other authorities. De Volkskrant and Nieuwsuur revealed yesterday that the Dutch intelligence services AIVD and MIVD (the military branch) gained access to a Russian computer network in 2014 in a university building near the Kremlin. The Dutch were able to watch the Russian hacker group Cozy Bear attacking the US State Department, gain access to mail traffic from the White House and infiltrated the Democratic party. The story confirms American suspicions of Russian interference in the election battle between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in 2016.De Nederlandse inlichtingendiensten werkten de afgelopen jaren nauw samen met hun Amerikaanse collega's en wisten op cruciale momenten informatie door te spelen over cyberaanvallen van de Russen. De relatie tussen de diensten van beide landen was goed totdat Trump tot president was gekozen en het Witte Huis aanvankelijk de berichtgeving over Russische inmenging afdeed als nepnieuws.Translation:The Dutch intelligence services have worked closely with their American colleagues over the past few years and have been able to pass on information about cyber attacks by the Russians at crucial moments. The relationship between the services of both countries was good until Trump was elected president and the White House initially dismissed the coverage of Russian interference as fake news.

Feb. 3, 2018Revealed quote of the day from the oddball Carter Page:“Over the past half year, I have had the privilege to serve as an informal advisor to the staff of the Kremlin in preparation for their Presidency of the G-20 Summit next month, where energy issues will be a prominent point on the agenda,” he wrote in the letter, dated August 25, 2013. Comment on Daily KosAfternoon update, apropos of my story below:

Good Morning, Trumpland, he loves the smell fallout in the morning. Ruining Super Bowl weekend.

Today’s news is not reassuring when we all are worried about Trump’s mental stability — who can forget “ my nuclear button is bigger" and "fire and fury like the world has never seen”.

On Friday, the Trump administration released its Nuclear Posture Review calling for new, more usable nuclear weapons and more ways to use them, including widening the rules on using them first. Donald Trump would get new nukes that his advisers claim are "low-yield," and that Trump might be more inclined to actually launch. And he would have new excuses to use them, including against large-scale cyberattacks, that previous presidents have rejected. from Give Trump more nuclear weapons and more ways to use them? Not a good idea, CNN

And, sorry to throw more cold water on what may be left of your good mood, you may have read this from James Doyle, who served as Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox's deputy:

“We got lucky with Watergate—good prosecutors, and tapes!” Doyle says. This time around, the debate is less clear-cut, and the evidence murky. Republicans are making concerted efforts to taint the work, and challenge the motives, of the watchdogs.

And then you may have checked out Trump’s morning Tweets to find that overnight Trump's malignant narcissism and pathological lying disease wasn't cured by the truth fairy.

Meanwhile, some of you may be distracted by Superbowl hype. I’m happy for you. You might even have some relief from thinking Alas, I haven’t been a sports fan since my alma mater, Michigan State was named national football champion two years in a row. Now the school has been besmirched by a scandal, but that's another story (which happens to be here).

*Or going out to see "The Shape of Water" or another popular movie when most people will be at home glued to their television machines.The first comments from Daily Kos, click to read more as they are posted:

We need to protest the complicit congressional Republicans who are NOT doing their jobs but are actively in congress with Trump, and not The People, to obfuscate the truth in order to “protect” Trump from his ever-increasing exposure to adverse action against him. I guess we have to wait for warmer weather in order to march (??).

I’m not worried because Dump is so transparent. His tweeting is a desperate attempt to frame the narrative. But the emperor wears no clothes, we can all see it. Only his base believe him. There will be more indictments.

The difference is not cable news. The difference is a Democratic Congress in 1973 , and a Republican Congress today.

”We got lucky with Watergate—good prosecutors and tapes!” So far I’ve seen nothing to suggest that Mueller’s team is any weaker than Cox’s team.

And Mr. Doyle—you didn’t put the biggest crook in jail. Nixon got pardoned. Not your fault, and that may happen again. But the point is, the victory in Watergate wasn’t the punishment of the crooks, it was the change in government. We may see that as soon as November.

Trump's arguments on immigration are uniformly exaggerated or wrong. There is little evidence that migrants take jobs from working-class Americans. They generally have skills and attitudes toward work that put them in competition with other migrants. There is no evidence that immigrants have higher rates of crime. The opposite is true. And most terrorism experts see little urgent threat from refugees (who are highly vetted), or from family unification.

But Trump is not really making a case that can be refuted with rational arguments. He exemplifies what social psychologist Jonathan Haidt calls the moral foundation of "purity." Trump's approach to immigration assumes that migrants are contaminates. Haitians "all have AIDS," Trump is reported to have said. Developing nations are "s---hole countries." "They're bringing drugs," he argued, "They're bringing crime. They're rapists." His language about the border is borderline eugenic. The wall would prevent not just migration but infection.\

As the State of the Union demonstrated, this attitude is not a removable part of Trump's appeal. It is a Jenga piece at the bottom of his ideological tower. Without promoting fear of "the other" there would be no Trumpism.

Feb. 2, 2018

It's easy to be snarky about this (below), however this is serious, and Senator John McCain gives me the quote of the day:

Update - Annals of Advertising: After I made this image I realized that many people may not have seen "Five Easy Pieces" and had no idea what it meant. This is an iconic scene. Now on TV instead of calling it a nothing burger they're saying "there's no beef there." Of course most of my older readers know this came from the 1984 Wendy's commercial which only lasted until 1985. It still added a phrase into the lexicon. Then it was considered one of the 10 best commercials ever, so Wendy's brought it back in 2011.

It took a long time to download, 10 minutes, but I finally got it. My comment comes from Five Easy Pieces:

[Bobby wants plain toast, which isn't on the menu and the waitress is giving him a hard time…} Bobby: I'd like an omelet, plain, and a chicken salad sandwich on wheat toast, no mayonnaise, no butter, no lettuce. And a cup of coffee.Waitress: A #2, chicken sal. sand. Hold the butter, the lettuce, and the mayonnaise, and a cup of coffee. Anything else?Bobby: Yeah, now all you have to do is hold the chicken, bring me the toast, give me a check for the chicken salad sandwich, and you haven't broken any rules.Waitress: You want me to hold the chicken, huh?Bobby: I want you to hold it between your knees.If you were interested you probably found the memo online by now, so I took it off the main page and put it here. You can also let HUFFPOST explain it to you.

But the speech was instructive in another way: by the obvious exception to its general tone. Even on his finest behavior — even wearing his Sunday best — Trump could not be gracious to immigrants. Their role in the address was largely to create an atmosphere of menace — variously killing children or running a truck into a bike path. “Americans are dreamers, too,” said the president, as though young people facing deportation were living lives of privilege at the expense of American citizens.

But Trump is not really making a case that can be refuted with rational arguments. He exemplifies what social psychologist Jonathan Haidt calls the moral foundation of “purity.” Trump’s approach to immigration assumes that migrants are contaminants. Haitians “all have AIDS,” Trump is reported to have said. Developing nations are “shithole countries.” “They’re bringing drugs,” he argued, “They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” His language about the border is borderline eugenic. The wall would prevent not just migration but infection, too. As the State of the Union demonstrated, this attitude is not a removable part of Trump’s appeal. It is a Jenga piece at the bottom of his ideological tower. Without promoting fear of “the other,” there would be no Trumpism.

I rely on MSNBC to keep me up on investigative news articles in the for a fee Wall Street Journal, but I subscibe to the New York Times and The Washington Post mostly so I can read their excellent opinion columns. I know many readers feel nickle and dimed to death (those $10 month fees add up) paying for the ability to read more than 10 articles a month on the NYT and WaPo sites. Added to streaming video services like Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Netflix (which has just raised its fees) the cash adds up.For your consideration, here these are the opinions published on WaPo today: Eugene Robinson, David Kris, Max Boot, Joe Scarborough, Jenifer Rubin, and Joe Walsh. (Scroll down)Right: Michele Bachmann Just Got An Actual Sign From God, And It’s Absolutely Priceless

Washington’s legal immune system is about to expel an infection from the body politic

Excerpt:

Flynn and one other Trump campaign staffer have pleaded guilty to perjury, and two more senior campaign officials have been indicted. So far, more than 20 members of the White House staff have either been fired or resigned from their positions. Every day there is another story about who will be next to go. Will it be Rex Tillerson, who has been quoted calling Trump a “moron”? Sessions, who has lied repeatedly about his contacts with Russians during the campaign and enraged Trump when he recused himself from the Russia investigation? Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, chairman of a bank in Cyprus used in Russian money laundering and photographed on numerous occasions falling asleep at meetings, including state occasions in Saudi Arabia and in the White House itself?

See a pattern here? Resignations. Firings. Indictments. Hearings. Special prosecutor. Leaks. Media hordes. And all over Washington, D.C., offices filled with eager beaver investigators burrowing into every corner of the Trump campaign, the Trump transition, the Trump White House and Trump’s business empire.

Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller has worked his way through the White House staff and the Trump campaign, taking testimony from one witness after another, just like the Watergate special prosecutor worked his way through the Nixon White House and campaign. There is only one witness left to interview: Donald J. Trump.

There is one difference between the two cases. Special Prosecutor Leon Jaworski never questioned Richard Nixon about his role in the Watergate burglary and cover-up. He didn’t have to. On July 24, 1974, the Supreme Court decided in United States v. Nixon that the president had to release the White House tapes. Fifteen days later, the inevitable happened. Facing impeachment and the probability of being prosecuted after leaving office, Nixon made a deal for a pardon and resigned.

Now Washington’s immune system is about to expel yet another infection from the body politic. The end game is here. Even Trump knows it.

My gut usually works like an Omega watch. It is a finely tuned machine and reliable as, well, as Omega watch.

.

I’ve had stomach cramps ever since the morning after I submitted myself to the State of the Union speech. I even have pangs of pain as I write this. I am stuck at home because I don’t want to be away from a bathroom.

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Turn back the time machine 70 years

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When I was a kid I always said my prayers at bedtime:

.

Now I lay me down to sleep

I pray to God my soul to keep

God bless Mommy and Daddy,

Jenifer ( with one n — my sister) and Grandpa and (Aunt) Grace,

and Bibby (my cat).

.

Then came a time at about age 10 when I realized I didn’t believe in God.

.

However, every once in awhile I would have wicked stomach cramps and while trying to wish them away would finally say out loud “please, please, God, if you make the pain go away I will believe in you.”

It actually worked pretty well. It even worked when I went to the dentist in the days before they had high-speed drills, and I had cavities filled without novocaine, fearing the giant needle more than the pain.

.

But my prepubescent atheism persisted to this day. I’m not a proselytizing atheist, God just isn't part of my life or belief system and isn't something I think about very often.

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Narcissism or Delusion alert:

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What if there is a God and She is waiting for me not because I’m special, rather because I am ordinary in some Biblical way, and I have been selected as the one random non-believing human among millions, to become a believer. If I just pray for Her to exercise divine and compassionate, intervention to remove Trump from office She will make it happen.

Joe Kennedy had Chapstick glare, proving that that unlike Trump he wasn't wearing makeup - I consider that a good thing. It wouldn't surprise me that Trump has someone put makeup on him every morning. Overaged metro-sexual? Girly-man?

What do I think about and what I do I think about it?

May, 1, 2016

I migrated everything from April to the basement file cabinet, so fitting of Spring, this blog starts anew, unfortunately, again it’s Trump on my mind. The archives for the two months I have been sharing cyberspace with billions of bloggers are below.

If you are a new reader, welcome. I do this blog alone, but always welcome critiques and ideas from you, I mean you, whoever is actually reading these words.